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Forum Discussion
NV+ X-RAID Expansion with WDC drives
I'm quite happy with my NV+ X-RAID running for 2+ years with 4 x WDC WD10EADS-00M2B0 (1 TB).
One drive has quite a high Raw Read Error Rate (5941912). So I guess it might be failing soon. Don't know, don't care... I'll replace it anyway.
So I got this two brand new WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 (2 TB) to replace two of the old drives. Maybe later another 2 x 2 TB to remove last 2 x 1 TB.
The WD20EARX is mentioned on the HCL so it should be no biggy. I thought...
I hot-swapped the the first drive and got a 'dead' status for the new one.
"The disk attached to channel 1 could not be used. The most common reasons are RAID resync in progress, faulty drives, and disks that are too small to be added to the array."
yada yada... 'Crappy WD', I thought and put in the second fresh drive with the same result.
Okay, after some searching I came up with this:
1. kernel.log shows TLER issues pretty near to the swaps
2. My NV+ has RAIDiator 4.1.6 installed
3. RAIDiator 4.1.7 fixes the TELR issues for (all?) WD drives
4. I have to upgrade to RAIDiator 4.1.7 if not 4.1.8 (although not available/found in Frontview Remote Update)
5. There might be some limit for expanding over 5 TB? I didn't calculate available space for 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 TB in X-RAID, though. Probably < 5 TB
For now i put back in the old WD10EADS which is re-syncing right now (at 44 %) and
contacted tech support, case 18077577, to see what these guys will come up with.
Meanwhile the following questions:
1. Am I good by simply installing 4.1.7, 4.1.8 by means of local upload/update
2. Can I install 4.1.8 without installing 4.1.7 first?
3. Will I have to Factory Reset and lose all my data (no backup, yet, haha)
4. Is it possible to run 4 + 2 TB in NV+ X-RAID at all?
Any help is highly appreciated.
One drive has quite a high Raw Read Error Rate (5941912). So I guess it might be failing soon. Don't know, don't care... I'll replace it anyway.
So I got this two brand new WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 (2 TB) to replace two of the old drives. Maybe later another 2 x 2 TB to remove last 2 x 1 TB.
The WD20EARX is mentioned on the HCL so it should be no biggy. I thought...
I hot-swapped the the first drive and got a 'dead' status for the new one.
"The disk attached to channel 1 could not be used. The most common reasons are RAID resync in progress, faulty drives, and disks that are too small to be added to the array."
yada yada... 'Crappy WD', I thought and put in the second fresh drive with the same result.
Okay, after some searching I came up with this:
1. kernel.log shows TLER issues pretty near to the swaps
2. My NV+ has RAIDiator 4.1.6 installed
3. RAIDiator 4.1.7 fixes the TELR issues for (all?) WD drives
4. I have to upgrade to RAIDiator 4.1.7 if not 4.1.8 (although not available/found in Frontview Remote Update)
5. There might be some limit for expanding over 5 TB? I didn't calculate available space for 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 TB in X-RAID, though. Probably < 5 TB
For now i put back in the old WD10EADS which is re-syncing right now (at 44 %) and
contacted tech support, case 18077577, to see what these guys will come up with.
Meanwhile the following questions:
1. Am I good by simply installing 4.1.7, 4.1.8 by means of local upload/update
2. Can I install 4.1.8 without installing 4.1.7 first?
3. Will I have to Factory Reset and lose all my data (no backup, yet, haha)
4. Is it possible to run 4 + 2 TB in NV+ X-RAID at all?
Any help is highly appreciated.
9 Replies
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- You mentioned that your device was worked on 4.1.6 firmware which is only support 512-byte hard drive,so,you'd better to upgrade firmware to 4.1.8 first, then backup all data and factory default your device to support 4K sector drive.
- UPDATE:
I upgraded FW 4.1.6 -> 4.1.8 and one of the fresh drives (WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0) is initializing/synching right now (probably to a sector size which is less than adequate)
Sector sizes which are not correctly aligned cause (major?) performance issues, right?
Doing a factory default/reset will definitively erase all data (format disks with new sector size)? If a backup is just considered a safety net for a failing factory default, I would skip this step because the data is not that important. Knowing it will be gone in any case is a different matter... dehmer wrote:
Sector sizes which are not correctly aligned cause (major?) performance issues, right?
Yes. Write performance tends to become terrible (e.g. < 1MB/s)dehmer wrote:
Doing a factory default/reset will definitively erase all data (format disks with new sector size)?
Yes all data will be wiped.
The start sectors for each disk in partition.log (in logs zip file downloadable via Status > Logs > Download all logs) will be divisible by 8 indicating 4k sector partition alignment.- Okay, thank you.
A final question: Is it possible (or advisable) to mix 2 x WD10EADS and 2 x WD20EARX disks, will sector sizes be different between models and if so does that have any negative effects.
yes, okay, that was 2 or 3 questions ;-)
Tech support mentions this "Please note if you want to expand the volume you will need all 4x 2TB disk to replace with."
I don't understand what exactly "expand" means in this context (overall size?)
Also, I'm replacing the 1 TB disks not the 2 TBs. Maybe a misunderstanding.
BTW: Good job on the great support. I definitively can recommend Netgear/Readynas in this respect. - You can mix and match different models. Also 4k sector partition alignment is compatible with both 512-byte and 4k sector disks (remember 4k = 8 * 512 bytes). Do note however that the WD10EADS is not on the Hard Disk HCL
With 2x1TB and 2x2TB you would be limited to the capacity of the smallest disk. So it would be treated as 4x1TB disks until the remaining 1TB disks are replaced one by one with larger capacity disks. What this means is that you'd be better off with 3x2TB disks in the NAS and 1 slot empty. - I see, got it.
Thus my plan is (please revise):
1. Backup configuration
2. Backup important data
3. Factory reset
4. Replace second WD10EADS with WD20EARX (first WD10EADS is already replaced)
5. Restore data
6. Get another two WD20EARX in the near future and expand
For step 4: Should I power off the NAS before replacement and after factory reset? - Replace the disks before factory reset. You can power off the NAS, replace the disks and use the boot menu: http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/boot/how_do_i_use_the_boot_menu
- Will do. Thanks a lot.
- A few days later , the 'fight' is over and the dust has settled.
That's what I did:
- Backed-up all data to external USB drive (after enabling 'fast USB writes')
- I keep the second new 2 TB disk as a spare to replace the next failing disk
- Reset to factory defaults (enabled 4k sector support)
- Waited for drives to be initialized (formatted) for the good part of a night
- Verified in partition.log that start sectors are multiples of 8
- Restored data from external drive
All seems good now.
Lessons learned:
- Before you buy any hardware (disks, memory), check HCL first
- Have a current backup of your NAS in case you have to restore factory defaults
- At least maintain a suitable infrastructure (e.g. a big enough USB drive) to back-up on demand
- Before scheduling the first USB backup, check if you want to enable 'Fast USB writes' performance option
- Keep your firmware reasonably up-to-date (probably requires reading the release notes)
- Netgear support is fast and competent. That's how you keep customers…
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